With paper folded the right way and a little ‘cutting edge’ imagination, you can create something better than your typical paper snowflake — you can make Snow Stars!

Younger kids may have a little trouble with this craft, but it’s like magic when they open them up. Well worth the work!

If you’ve got bigger kids, then they can really get creative and have a lot of fun with these.

What You’ll Need:

• Paper
• Scissors
• Pencil
• The Templates Below

Version 1:

1. Measure and cut your paper so that it’s square. Then fold it according to the diagram below. Using thinner paper and a larger square makes the folding and the cutting in step 2 a lot easier.

2. Once your paper is folded, you can cut it anyway you want. Unfold when complete.

This is pretty much the standard way of making paper snowflakes. Now let’s take a look at a different variation.

Variation 2:

1. Cut your paper into a circle. Fold the circle in half. Fold the half circle into thirds, one side over the other, as in the diagram below.

2. Once you have the paper folded, you’ll have a cone shaped piece of paper. Use the diagram as a guideline and cut out the shape you want for your snow star. The more smaller cuts on the folds, the more intricate your design will turn out. Unfold when complete.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Snow Star Craft

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This easy bead Christmas wreath ornament craft is really easy to make for children of all ages to create. It makes a great project for small groups like scouting or classrooms too.

One of these little wreaths would also look great tied onto a gift!

What You’ll Need:

• A 12 inch white pipe cleaner
• 35 green tri-beads
• 7 red tri-beads

What to Do:

1. Feed 5 green beads onto the pipe cleaner, then feed on one red bead. The beads should interlock over each other.  Keep alternating the beads until you have them all on the pipe cleaner.

2. Move all the beads so that they are in the middle of the pipe cleaner and there are equal lengths of pipe cleaner at both ends.

3. Bend the beaded pipe cleaner into a circle and twist the two ends together to make a circle. Use the remaining ends of the pipe cleaner to make a bow.

When you get ready to hang the ornament on the tree, you can use a wire ornament hanger and hook it through the top of the ornament where the pipe cleaners are tied. You can also tie a piece of thread around the ornament to make a hanger.

Don’t forget about our Little Kid Christmas Crafts book!  It’s only available for a limited time!

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Easy Bead Christmas Wreath Ornament Craft

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It just wouldn’t be crafting if we didn’t make something out of a recycled toilet paper cardboard tube.

This craft can be adapted to make just about anything including: Santa, Mrs. Claus, Reindeer, Snowmen, Elves, Angels, etc. In addition, you don’t just have to use toilet paper tubes. You can also use paper towel rolls and wrapping paper rolls.

You’ll Need:

• Recycled toilet paper tube
• Construction paper (red, white, pink, and black)
• Markers or cryaons
• Glue (or gluestick)
• Cotton balls
• Wiggle eyes (optional)

What to Do:

1. Wrap a cardboard tube with a 4 x 2 inch sheet of red paper and glue in place.

2. To make the face, use a 3 inch wide circle of pink paper and glue in place.

3. Cut a 4 inch wide half circle and roll it into a cone. Glue in place. Glue the cone on top of the tube to make Santa’s hat.

4. Cut a thin black strip of paper that is long enough to go around the tube. Glue it in the middle of the tube to make Santa’s belt.

5. Use the markers or crayons to make Santa’s facial features. You can use the optional wiggle eyes if desired.

6. Tear apart cotton balls and glue onto the tube to make the beard and hatband. Make a small ball of cotton and glue it to the point of the hat.

My kids are absolutely crazy about these things! We have to make new ones each year.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Tissue Tube Santa Christmas Craft

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This little stocking ornament takes a little time to make, but it’s not difficult and it makes a great ornament that will last a very long time. I originally made this ornament when I was about twelve at a friend’s house.

What You’ll Need:

• 13 x 13 squares of plastic canvas
• White yarn
• Green yarn
• Red yarn
• Scissors
• Small square green felt
• Glue

What to Do:

1. Cut a piece of plastic canvas so that you have a square that is 13 full squares.

2. Normally when you cross stitch, you create an “X” as in the picture below. The normal cross stitch pattern goes up through square 1, down through square 2, up through square three, and down through square 4.

For this design, you’ll only create half the “X.” In other words, you’ll go up through square number three and down through square number four as in the diagram below. This is a half cross stitch.

3. Use the pattern diagram below to create the stocking design. When complete, whip stitch around the outside of the square to cover up the plastic canvas edge.

4. Cut a piece of yarn to make the hanger. Loop the yarn and glue it to the back of the canvas. Cut a piece of felt large enough to cover the back of your ornament and glue in place.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Christmas Cross Stitch Stocking Ornament

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This is a fun way to keep track of the days until Christmas, especially for younger kids.  It’s also a good way to get in a little counting practice if you make them count the days off each day.

But don’t think it’s limited to younger kids — This is a big deal at our house where we make a big production of tearing off the next ring after dinner each night.  The kids absolutely love it!

What You’ll Need:

• The template below printed on yellow construction paper
• Red construction paper
• Green construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Crayons (optional)

What to Do:

1.  Cut 13 strips of red construction paper that are about 1 inch wide and 8 inches long. Cut 12 strips of green paper with the same dimensions.

2.  Print out the bell pattern below on yellow construction paper. Color with crayons if desired and cut out. (You could also decorate the bell with glitter, sequins, markers, etc. if you want.)

3.  Roll one of the red strips of paper into a loop and staple it onto the bottom of the bell. Loop a green strip of paper through the red loop to get the chain started. Continue to alternate the red and green strips of paper to make a chain that has 25 links in it.

4.  Hang the bell and chain up in a prominent place and tear off one link at the end of each day until Christmas.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Countdown to Christmas Bell

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Run, run, as fast as you can… You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man. This is a great way for younger kids to make a pretty realistic gingerbread man without all the mess and hassle of making them in the kitchen. This also makes a great bulletin board display or Christmas Ornament!

If you happen to be reading one of the many stories about gingerbread men, then this project would be ideal to go along with the story and reinforce what you’ve read with your child.

You’ll Need:

• Brown sandpaper
• Scissors
• Markers, crayons, pom poms, glitter, buttons, etc. to decorate
• Hole punch (Optional)

What to Do:

1. Print out the template below and trace it on to the back side of the sandpaper. Cut it out (a grown up may have to do this for younger children).

2. Decorate the gingerbread man any way you desire.

We used glitter glue in the example, but here are some other suggestions:

• Color with crayons or markers
• Use pom poms or real buttons to make the man’s buttons and eyes
• Glue on pieces of cereal to make the features
• Glue on pieces of real candy
• Embellish with yarn or ribbon
• Use glitter or confetti to “shine” up the gingerbread man
• Glue on cotton ball hair

You get the idea.

3. Punch a hole and tie on a ribbon to make an ornament or to hang from the ceiling. Most sandpaper is stiff enough without having to glue it onto another piece of paper or cardboard.

The Template

Be sure to enlarge the template on a copier to make it larger if desired.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Ginger Bread Man Craft

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Sometimes when you can’t find the things you need for crafting, you have to make it.  That’s definitely true for those beautiful autumn leaves that you need for you fall projects.

In my area, the pretty fall leaves are just about gone… or at least they’re turning brown. Not really the best kind of leaves to use for Thanksgiving centerpieces and projects… so I thought you could actually make your own out of coffee filters!

Here’s how we make coffee filter leaves:

1. Cut leaf shapes out of basket-type coffee filters.  You can make your own shapes or use templates, but we like to use cookie cutters.

2. Fill an ice cube tray with water and then put a few drops of food coloring in each of the sections (orange, red, yellow, and brown). Make each section a different color.

3. Flatten out each of your pre-cut filter leaves and use an eyedropper to make designs on them. Each color will spread and run into the other colors.

This is a lot of fun for the kids (and the grownups) and makes a good lesson for what happens when you mix colors. Let the filters dry completely and don’t forget to put down some newspaper or your table will likely be stained.

Then you can use these pretty leaves in any other Thanksgiving project, tape them to windows, or in a pretty Thanksgiving display.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Make Your Own Fall Leaves For Thanksgiving Craft

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It seems early to start doing Thanksgiving crafts, especially since we just finished Halloween, but some crafts take a little longer to do right than others.  This is one of the crafts that I like to do every year with the kids, but it can take a little time with younger kids.  I like to do just about anything that will get my kids thinking about how blessed they are in their lives, and a Thankful Book craft does a really great job!

This is a craft project that would be ideal for just about any group of kids, regardless of age.

The idea is to make a Thanksgiving keepsake for your child.  You can make this as elaborate or simple as you want.  You don’t even have to “make” the book.  You could purchase a small scrapbook, Thanksgiving stickers, etc. and make this a really simple project.  But for those of us on a budget, a homemade Thankful Book is quick, simple, and fun.

What You’ll Need:

• A holiday picture
• Crayons
• Several sheets of paper
• Stapler
• Pen or marker

What To Do:

1.  Print out a holiday picture and let your child color it.

2.  On the sheets of paper, ask your child what they are thankful for (you may have to help them get started or give them examples to get the ball rolling). Write down each thing they are thankful for on a separate piece of paper.  You can even take this further by having them draw pictures of what they are thankful for, etc.

3.  Assemble all the sheets with the holiday picture on top and staple it along the side like a book.

There are so many variation of how you can do this book and make it a meaningful activity for your child… but I hope this gives you the general idea.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Thanksgiving Craft: A Thankful Book Craft

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Pumpkins have always been a big deal at our house, even before we had kids. My husband and I used to have contests every year to see who could carve the best pumpkin. I always won. (My husband might have a different opinion about that.) Then one year I took the kids to a local farm where they sold really cute painted pumpkins for $30-$50 per pumpkin. Being a pretty crafty person, I decided that I wanted to try pumpkin painting on my own.

Luckily I found a how to book that gave me all the pointers I needed and they we were off to the races. Now we paint our pumpkins every year instead of carving them.

Sound strange? Well let me give you my top 7 reasons to paint pumpkins and you might just become a pumpkin painter too.

1. Painting is a lot less work than carving.

With five of us in our family and each one of us needing our own special pumpkin, that is five pumpkins to cut open, clean, and carve each year. The kids are too little to handle knives themselves, so that means my husband and I do most of the work while the kids watch. That makes for a very long pumpkin carving event and some very tired hands.

2. Kids can paint pumpkins all by themselves with very little help.

Even very young children can pick up a paint brush and paint their own pumpkins. That means that they aren’t idly standing by watching while mom or dad does the carving. They’re actively participating, designing, and enjoying their own pumpkin creation.

3. No sharp utensils.

Even with some of the safer pumpkin carving tools on the market today, pumpkin carving can still be dangerous for children. Pumpkin painting only involves the use of paint and paint brushes – no sharp objects needed.

4. Painted pumpkins last longer.

After you carve a pumpkin, you might get to enjoy it for a couple of days before it starts to rot, slump, and fall apart. Painted pumpkins, on the other hand, can last a really long time. If there are cool temperatures without any frost at night, we’ve had pumpkins last into the late Fall and early Winter.

5. Painted pumpkins don’t need a candles.

When you carve a pumpkin, you really need to put a candle or battery operated light into it and see it at night to get the full effect of carving it. Looking at carved pumpkins in the daytime just isn’t very impressive. And by the way, who in their right mind wants to stick their hand inside a pumpkin to light it up after it’s been sitting for a day or two? Yuk!

Painted pumpkins don’t need an internal light. They can be seen from the light of your other decorations, and they look great in the daytime!

6. Painted pumpkins are much more versatile.

It’s much easier to make a painted pumpkin look like anything you want, while carving pumpkins limits most of us. It can take hours to carve an intricate design into a pumpkin to make it look the way you want. Painting is much quicker and easier.

7. Painted pumpkins are easier to embellish.

We’ve made painted pumpkins for Thanksgiving that were decorated with glitter, three little pig pumpkins for the beginning of the harvest season with wooden spool legs and pink pipe cleaner tails, and Halloween pumpkins with pine boughs sticking out for hair. Painted pumpkins are super easy to embellish with just about anything you can think of to make them fit your design.

In the end, painting pumpkins just proves to be a much better fit for our family. Oh, we still carve the occasional pumpkin, but the majority of our pumpkin activities revolves around painting pumpkins.

If you’d like to learn more about how to paint really fabulous pumpkins that will literally stop traffic, then just click the link below:

Click here for aweseome pumpkin painting ideas ==>>>

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Top 7 Reasons To Paint Pumpkins

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My kids really enjoyed making these last year, and they were sooo easy!  Some of you might have already seen this craft last Halloween, but it’s one of my favorites, so I couldn’t resist re-publishing it!

This craft is a cute, but easy way to make a Halloween necklace out of fun foam and pony beads. I saw the original craft in a catalog and then we created our own version.

You could also easily adapt this one for other Halloween type figures — Like a black cat would be cute.

You’ll Need:

• White Fun Foam
• 3 Inches Orange Ribbon
• Pony Beads
• Wooden Beads to Spell BOO
• 24 Inches of White Cord or Yarn
• Glue
• Scissors
• Black Permament Marker and Pencil

What To Do:

1. Print out the ghost template below. Cut it out and trace it onto white fun foam with a pencil.

2. Cut out your ghost. Use the point of your scissors or a small hole punch to make the wholes in the center of the hands as the template shows.

3. Use a permanent black marker to draw a face on your ghost. Tie a small bow with the orange ribbon and glue it onto the ghost.

4. String the beads onto the cord as shown in the picture. You can use a different bead pattern if you choose.

NOTE: Put a piece of tape around the end of the chord or yarn to make it easier to string the beads.

5. Thread the ends of the cord through the hands of the ghost. Tie the two ends of the cord into a knot to make a necklace.

Post from: KidCraftsMagazine.com

Ghostly Necklace

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